England are three wins away from bringing football home
The first of those three games saw the Three Lions take on Sweden in Samara in the World Cup quarter-final on Saturday afternoon.
They booked their place by seeing off Colombia in the last-16. Having eventually won the game on penalties, it’s been clear in the time since that the South American nation felt like they were on the wrong end of some incorrect decisions from referee Mark Geiger.
Their manager made his feelings known after the match in Moscow, while over quarter of a million Colombians signed a petition asking for the game to be replayed.
With all this in mind, it was inevitable that the man chosen to oversee England’s next game would be under a little more scrutiny than is usually expected. Sure enough, he was – before a ball had even been kicked…
Completely ignoring the fact that the bloke who took charge of England’s last game was called ‘Mark’, many were concerned with how Swedish Bjorn Kuipers’s first name sounded, regardless of the fact he is very much Dutch.
https://twitter.com/pendopolaris/status/1015598907827638272
A referee called “Bjorn” reffing the #EnglandvsSweden match – Football may not be coming home
— Sean Judge (@Sean_Judges) July 7, 2018
Referee Kuipers is Dutch but called Bjorn. Wonder where that name comes from? 🤔#ENGSWE
— Kate Mullen (@NinjaArkRock) July 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/LiamHarrison10/status/1015599435601072128
https://twitter.com/bigaldinhoo/status/1015598125090852866
Getting ready for England – Sweden…
Hang on! The ref's name is Bjorn! How is that fair? 😂#WorldCup
— DG (@DodgeeGamer) July 7, 2018
Ref for England v Sweden is called bjorn now im nervous @itscominghome
— Work Creative (@Workcreative) July 7, 2018
Fortunately, the ref’s first name didn’t prevent Harry Maguire from heading home England’s opener after half an hour…
